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Collared Forest Falcon
Micrastur semitorquatus
Status:
Lower risk
Population Trend:
Unknown.
Other Names:
Collared Forest-falcon, Lesson's Hawk, Mexican Harrier Hawk,
Micrastur melanoleucus
, Pied Forest Hawk.
click to enlarge
Distribution:
Neotropical.
North-central MEXICO south through Central America and west of the Andes through COLOMBIA, ECUADOR, and PERU, and east of the Andes south through Amazonia to northern ARGENTINA and PERU.
more....
Subspecies:
2 races.
M. s. naso
: North-central MEXICO (Sinaloa, Tamaulipas) south through Central America to northern and western COLOMBIA, western ECUADOR, and extreme northwestern PERU;
M. s. semitorquatus
: Eastern COLOMBIA east to the GUIANAS and south through eastern PERU, northern and eastern BOLIVIA and BRAZIL to PARAGUAY and northern ARGENTINA.
more....
Taxonomy:
Considered to include
M. buckleyi
by Hellmayr and Conover (1949), despite arguments advanced by Traylor (1948) that the latter form is a separate species, based on its smaller size and plumage differences. Amadon (1964) described the first female and immature specimens of
M. buckleyi
and agreed that
M. semitorquatus
and
M. buckleyi
are indeed separate species, a treatment that has been followed by all subsequent authorities.
Movements:
Probably non-migratory.
Habitat and Habits:
Found in lowlands and middle elevations to 2,500 m or higher and prefers the canopy of thickets in solid or broken forest, swamp forests, mangroves, late second-growth and scrub. Although it occurs mostly in heavily wooded regions, it is typically an edge species, occurring low in tangled thickets, and is rare in the interior of forests of large extent (Slud 1964, Thorstrom 2001). It does not soar. This large-eyed species calls before dawn and after dusk, sometimes from a partly exposed perch at the forest edge. Otherwise, it is furtive and difficult to spot, and it may be somewhat nocturnal. It often occurs in pairs, regardless of the season. It is inactive when not hunting and may rest lengthwise on a branch like a nightjar.
more....
Food and Feeding Behavior:
Feeds on large lizards, snakes, rodents, birds (up to the size of guans and ibises), and large insects. This species reportedly preys on domestic chickens. It hunts by ambush from a concealed perch, by flying from perch to perch, by running along large branches, or even running on the ground with amazing speed and agility. It hunts at dawn and dusk, made possible by its large eyes and possibly a well developed sense of hearing. It also follows army ant swarms to capture invertebrates flushed by the ants (Mays 1985), but far less often than the smaller
Micrastur
species (Willis et al. 1983). Smith (1969) auggested that in Panama the congeneric
M. mirandollei
and
M. semitorquatus
both deliberately emit high-pitched vocalizations to attract avian prey, and he was able to attract mobbing passerines to speakers by playing the calls of these forest falcons. In turn, these forest falcons are attracted to the sounds made by excited birds, or by imitations of such sounds (Slud 1964, Wetmore 1965).
more....
Breeding:
Nests are in cavities of various types, including natural tree cavities (Mader 1979, Guedes 1993, Thorstrom 2001, López-Lanús 2000, Carrara et al. 2007), a hole in a cliff (Baker et al. 2000), a cave (Vallejos et al. 2008), and in abandoned buildings (Cobb 1990, Carvalho et al. 2002). Competition with macaws for nest cavities in trees has been reported from Ecuador and Brazil. Clutch size is 1-3 (usually 2) white eggs, heavily spotted with tan, brown, and chocolate (Wetmore 1974, Thorstrom et al. 2000). Only the female incubates, and the male provides food until the middle of the nestling period, when the female also begins hunting and delivering prey to the young. At Tikal, the incubation period was 46-48 days at one nest, the nestling period was 50 days, and the whole breeding period lasted approximately 28 weeks from courtship to fledgling dispersal (Thorstrom et al. 2000). In one instance, Thorstrom et al. (2000) observed an extra-pair adult delivering food to young at week 4 of the post-fledging period. In the population studied at Tikal, no re-nesting was observed after a nest failure, and no territorial pair bred in consecutive years (Thorstrom et al. op cit.).
more....
Conservation:
Widespread and locally common in some areas, but generally regarded as uncommon, probably because it is often overlooked. Categorized globally as a species of "Least Concern" by BirdLife International (2009).
more....
Important References:
Bierregaard, R.O.
1994. Collared
Forest-falcon.
P. 254
in
del Hoyo, J., A.
Elliott, and J. Sargatal (eds). Handbook of birds of the world. Vol. 2. New
World vultures to guineafowl. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain.
Ferguson-Lees,
J., and D.A. Christie. 2001. Raptors of the world. Houghton
Mifflin, Boston, MA.
López-Lanús,
B. 2000. Collared
Forest-falcon
Micrastur semitorquatus
courtship and mating, with
take-over
of a macaw nest. Cotinga
14:9-11.
Mader, W.J.
1979. First nest description for the genus
Micrastur
(forest
falcons). Condor 81:320.
Mays, N.M.
1985. Ants and foraging behavior of the Collared
Forest-falcon.
Wilson Bulletin
97:231-232.
Mendes de Carvalho, E.P., and C.E. Alencar Carvalho.
1998. [Description of
the nesting of
Micrastur semitorquatus
(Falconiformes: Falconidae) in the
interior of rural habitat in the municipality of Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais].
Atualidades Ornitologicas 86:12. (In Portuguese)
Thorstrom, R.
2000. The food habits of sympatric
forest-falcons
during the
breeding season in northeastern Guatemala. Journal of Raptor Research
34:196-202.
Thorstrom, R.
. 2001.
Nest-site
characteristics and breeding density of two
sympatric
forest-falcons
in Guatemala. Ornitologia Neotropical
12:337-343.
Thorstrom, R.
2007. Home ranges of Barred (
Micrastur ruficollis
) and
Collared
Forest-falcons
during the breeding season in Tikal National Park,
Guatemala. Ornitologica Neotropical
18:395-405.
Thorstrom, R.K.
2012. Collared Forest Falcon. Pp.
250-254
in
D.F. Whitacre
(ed.), Neotropical birds of prey: biology and ecology of a forest raptor
community. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Thorstrom, R., J.D. Ramos, and J.M. Castillo.
2000. Breeding biology and
behavior of the Collared
Forest-falcon
(
Micrastur semitorquatus
) in
Guatemala. Ornitologia Neotropical
11:1-12.
Thorstrom, R., C.L. Turley, F.G. Ramirez and B.A. Gilroy.
1990.
Description of nests, eggs, and young of the Barred
Forest-falcon
(
Micrastur
ruficollis
) and of the Collared
Forest-falcon
(
M. semitorquatus
). Condor
92:237-239.
more....
Sites of Interest:
Xeno-canto
Vocalizations.
VIREO
Collared Forest Falcon photos.
Aves de Rapina do Brasil
Species account with emphasis on Brazil.
Researchers:
Albuquerque, Jorge
Aldana, Fernando
Azevedo, Marcos Antônio Guimarães
Beers, Roy
Gómez, César
Quirós Bazán, Norman
Riba-Hernández, Laura
Santos, Kassius Klay
Shrum, Peggy
Thorstrom, Russell
Valdez, Ursula
Vargas G., José de J.
Whittaker, Andrew
Last modified: 7/27/2012
Recommended Citation:
Global Raptor Information Network. 2021. Species account: Collared Forest Falcon
Micrastur semitorquatus.
Downloaded from
http://www.globalraptors.org
on 19 Apr. 2021
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